The Sociological Imagination is a 1959 book by American sociologist C. Wright Mills published by Oxford University Press.

Mills also wrote of the danger of malaise (apathy),[clarification needed] which he saw as inextricably embedded in the creation and maintenance of modern societies.

He began the project of reconciliation and challenge with critiques of "grand theory" and "abstracted empiricism", outlining and criticizing their use in the current sociology of the day.

[3] In chapter two, Mills seems to be criticizing Parsonian Sociology, directly addressing The Social System, written by Talcott Parsons.

He further criticizes Parsonian Sociology on its ability to theorize as a form of pure abstraction that society can be understood irrespective of its historical and contextual nature without observation.

In the third chapter Mills criticizes the empirical methods of social research which he saw as evident at the time in the conception of data and the handling of methodological tools.

In this he can be seen criticizing the work of Paul F. Lazarsfeld who conceives of sociology not as a discipline but as a methodological tool (Mills, 1959, 55-59).

The idea has drawn criticism, with Stephen J. Kunitz writing that "Abstracted Empiricists embraced a philosophy based upon what they considered natural science, emphasizing, according to Mills, the significance of Method over substance", with quantitative survey research being the favored practice, for which "large teams, budgets, and institutes were required, leading to the bureaucratization of scholarship and transforming it from a craft to an industrial process".

[4] Another critique by Nigel Kettley states that the method "seeks to perfect the art of number crunching, while setting aside the cognitive processes involved in theory building as a form of morbid introspection".

Mills[6] opens "On Reason and Freedom" with the two facets of the sociological imagination (history and biography) in relationship to the social scientist.

Mills asserts that it is time for social scientists to address the troubles of the individual and the issues of society to better understand the state of freedom specific to this historical moment.

Enlightenment promises associated with the previous epoch have failed; increased rationality moves society further away from freedom rather than closer to it.